1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Reviews - Page 4 of 4

1996 Mitsubishi Lancer GLXi 1.6 from Latvia

Summary:

Thirsty/gutless

General Comments:

I have brought a Lancer GLxi 16 valve auto and have found this to be very expensive to run. At the moment it seems to do 15 miles to the gallon and seems to have no power. Obviously I cannot afford to run this as a everyday car so if anyone has got any advice on this please could you let me no.

What engine could I change and can I change the automatic in to gears?

Faults:

General Comments:

This is an awesome car. It was my first car, and I thrashed the hell out of it!

Performance is amazing, and I often beat people with much bigger and expensive cars. The 1.8 litre CC Lancer engine is great, and I didn't need to replace the clutch, even after 12000kms of use.

These cars handle great! Even if you lose it, they snap back into place.

My friend also had the 1999 Lancer; got it for a decent price in above average condition. He thrashed that engine more than anyone who has ever, or will ever, own any car, and never had a single problem, even after neglecting it. These cars are perfect for teenagers, and surprisingly they beat 9 out of 10 non turbo cars, yeah.

These cars are also very cheap! You can pick up a 1996 CC lancer for $6000 AUD or a CE 1999 for $12000.

Summary:

Faults:

This is a fair reliable car; it has stuck through with my family from the beginning till now.

I only started driving it when I got my provisional license in year 2001.

But it did have a few electrical problems in late 2001, which resulted in the shorting of the Electronic Processing Unit. It turned out to be a lose wire scraping within the engine bay.

It freaked me out, as me and my friend were testing its gears, suddenly the rev meter clocked.

It appeared that one of the wires in the engine bay was apparently lose and was messing up the electrical flow.

Total Fixing cost: $250AUD.

Currently while driving the lancer, I do hear a banging noise, when ever the auto transmission shifts a gear down.

I' am not too sure what it is, maybe it's the gear box; maybe something lose in the engine bay because I do seriously take the car to its handling limits.

Also the hand break suffers most if you use it often in your driving abilities.

General Comments:

Basically this is a real neat car to drive; I would recommend this to be any teenager's first car.

Lancers looks nasty when they are modified, especially I saw this one lancer within Sydney's western suburbs.

It had a neat European dragon air brushed all over the lancer's body, with its twin exhausts and extremely sharp 17 inch wheels.

It is a 1.8 Auto sports coupe, which means it dose have a fair bit of power, it holds general 92kw engine power stock.

So imagine the simple gain you will get if you fitted in a simple sports air filter, exhaust, replace the extractors & have a decent air intake system weather it would be air intakes upon the bonnet or an air intake trumpet system.

It's extractors do tend to look seriously rusty, but it's only looks and still will hold for years to come.

It is comfortable for the driver and passenger and is reasonable to fit 5 people, as it is a 2 door car.

This car is beautiful on its handling; I am so impressed as I did drive a few of my friends cars', which were Honda Integra, Mazda 121 and Suzuki GTI swift.

I can't stress how sweet the lancer's handling is, especially in the wet.

But when you drive this baby long enough, you will know when it will slide.

It's sharp maneuvers like the 180 and 360 degree turns are impressive, but I wouldn't recommend hand break corner turns for amateurs as I did have 2 minor accidents while attempting to do this within 2 mini streets.

It can make the turn easy, but recovering from it is tricky.

Also be sure if you do decide to turbo this baby, you will give WRX's run for its money.

Providing that you are willing to spend less than 10 grand in modifications including replacing the gear box.

If you really want to test it's ability, hire a race track.

I give it thumbs up.

Please don't be a full maniac with this car, its engine bay looks really not permanent for maniac conditions, as wires will get lose.

It is affordable, you can get a decent second hand Lancer GLXI, from $12,000AUD to $17,000AUD, reasonable price if your purchasing in year 2002.

And by the way, never be afraid to use the brakes, just don't use them too hard in the wet, you will regret it as it is a front wheel drive.

18th Jan 2003, 08:57

From spending a lot of time in a friends GLXi, in contrast to your comments, I have found the Lancer to be true to its budget price tag. This is infact an economy car with an economy price, and even the 1.8 litre engine endows it with just average performance. It is also noisy, harsh-riding and very cheaply made (the first CE2 models didn't even have a cassette player!). The sedan's body is just too light and goes all over the place when cornering with any amount of verve. That, and the so-called 'INVCESII' auto transmission just doesn't adapt, instead shifting up and down all over the place. No thanks.